Our Digital AmBEtion for Belgium - where we are today

Summer has started! And as our fiscal year here at Microsoft ended on June 30, it’s typically a good time for reflection, and a time for looking forward.

In November we unveiled, alongside Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, our Digital AmBEtion for Belgium; a comprehensive, multi-year investment plan designed to accelerate the digital transformation of Belgium’s public and private sectors.

While we can’t wait to share our exciting plans for the next months and year, I would like to recap what we did since November to strengthen our Digital AmBEtion.

Let me first share a word of gratitude to everyone that has been involved in the realization of this program; our governments, our customers, our partners and the many local and international Microsoft colleagues!

Digital AmBEtion includes three pillars: providing world-class digital infrastructure, helping citizens develop digital skills, and creating sustainable societal impact.

World-class digital infrastructure

Central to the plan, we announced that we will establish a new datacenter region in Belgium that delivers advanced data security and cloud solutions, offering Belgian organizations local data residency and faster access to the cloud.

If you missed our November 23 announcement or want to relive that moment, you can watch it below and understand why we make this massive investment in the Belgian market.

Our new datacenter region will be called Azure Belgium Central or ABC for short, bringing Azure, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to Belgium.

Based on our newest datacenter architecture, Azure Belgium Central will have 3 so-called Availability Zones, providing high availability for applications within the boundaries of the country. I wrote a behind the scenes article about our datacenter region and how it fits within the broader Microsoft Cloud:

In the ABC of Azure Belgium Central I wrote about the reasons for our investment and the new opportunities it unlocks by bringing the cloud closer to our users

Our tagline for Digital AmBEtion is 'putting Belgium on the digital map together', and we mean that literally. We can only succeed in this, if we partner up with our customers, our governments and our extended Microsoft Partner Network.

To that extend, we created the?ABC Ready badge that Microsoft Partners can obtain after following a series of deep dive webinars talking about the ins and outs of our investment. If you missed it, you can still watch the recorded sessions and obtain that ABC Ready badge.

The Belgian Railways, Belgian MobileID (ItsMe), FostPlus and Doctor Ciornohac from CHC Liège are looking forward to the opening of our datacenter region.

Helping citizens develop digital skills

Digital technology is transforming the way we work. As the world digitizes further and further, it's important to continuously learn and upskill to stay relevant in a changing job market.

To help with that career reflection, we launched, together with partners Proximus, Agoria, PWC and UQalify the Become.Digital campaign. Become.Digital helps you reflect on your career in 3 steps: assess your talents, develop your skills and discover new career opportunities. It takes less than 20 minutes and provides some good food for thought about your career!

Just a few weeks ago we announced a new partnership between Microsoft and Molengeek to train a total of 150 people through a program that brings cybersecurity skills to an underrepresented community. With this partnership, both parties aim to further bridge the digital skilling gap. Discover more in this video with Didier Ongena, General Manager Microsoft Belux, and Ibrahim Ouassari, Founder at MolenGeek.

Microsoft also supported Passwerk with realizing a cybersecurity training program for people with an autism spectrum profile to become SOC analyst. The candidates will follow a 6 week training to become SOC analyst.

Creating sustainable societal impact

Our third pillar focuses on creating sustainable societal impact. End of June we held our first Microsoft Sustainability Summit at the inspiring location of Hack in the Woods, a festival for developers who code for a better world.

The Microsoft Sustainability Summit featured a strong line-up with inspiring speakers from partners, customers and young promising startups in the sustainability domain. Watch the after movie below.

This is only the beginning of our Digitam AmBEtion journey. We have exciting plans for the coming months and can't wait to share them with you!

Visit our website www.digitalambetion.be if you're looking for more information on our Digital AmBEtion. Let's put Belgium on the digital map together!?